A safe bet<br /><br />Brazilian cinema is getting stronger, indeed. And it has reached levels of quality that really surprise me. What we are seeing, mostly, is a tendence to leave the alternative and reach the popular and commercial. That is exactly what Carandiru passes.<br /><br />It is a great movie, without a doubt. Strong, heavy, and yet not as real as it could be, Carandiru will impress mostly the international public with the story of a place where "the only thing more important than freedom is survival". It is very well conducted and some scenes are close to genious, but it is not a masterpiece at all. Carandiru is a safe bet. A safe bet because it does not cause all the impact expected, probably because of external pressure, a safe bet because it is a easy movie to watch, and has a commercial background. It´s obviously NOT an attempt to get only profit and maybe even an Oscar nomination, but still, it is an easy movie to watch. A movie to many people.<br /><br />Again, it is a very good movie, Hector Babenco talent and the cast talent make the experience of watching it pretty good, and it is indeed one of the best movies of the last years. But - and I am trying to avoid this comparation - it is not as good as Cidade de Deus (City of God).<br /><br />If you are looking for a good movie to have fun while watching, not truncated and complex in its storyline or editing, you will enjoy - as I did - Carandiru. But it is, definetly, not as good as expected.<br /><br />8/10